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Planet Geirkomo
Planet Geirkomo (Genau: "War-ridden," often spelled Geirkhomo or Gheirkhomo, and called the Planet of the Holy All-'War') is the homeworld of the Rat Race, a sapient species of rat-like non-human aliens. Planet Geirkomo is the first planet from the Lightbringer 3 star in the Tenebrous System of the Wawali Galaxy in the 13th Quadrant of the Axle. It is a desert world littered with ruins, dumping grounds, and shantytowns known as "rat nests," dominated by the foremost "Ten Nests" (of which there are actually twelve): the Fruitful Trench, Gnawmark, Ghohoma, Vroomokhan, Old Ratboar, New Ratboar, Rothyl, Suhkhri, Killcannibal, Ghome's Town, Hkanville, and Trade's Vale. Trade's Vale is the smallest of the ten nests, but lies within walking distance of the Fruitful Trench, Gnawmark, New Ratboar, and Ghome's Town, having survived off of trade rather than scavenging. All of these nests lie over what was once one of the deepest parts of the deepest sea on Geirkomo, the Wonder Sea. It dried up completely about two centuries before Huron Space. Ancient maps from before the scouring of Geirkomo revealed that the planet once had about six temperate continents radiating out from an ice continent on the world's south pole. Most of the other nests lie around what was once the highest, and coldest part of the planet, Mount Ramp, which still occasionally sees rain, and even snow once a decade. Geography: The seven continents of Geirkomo were often considered as one supercontinent in the ancient past, called by the name Yishaulasz, meaning "Ice Flower." Mount Ramp was very near the center of this supercontinent, and was considered a holy site by all major world religions. The Emperor of Rat built his throne room beneath Mount Ramp, and used it as a base for his operations. There were seven great-seas on the planet, and one ocean. The Wonder Sea, Sunder Sea, Plunder Sea, Thunder Sea, Lightning Sea, Frightening Sea, Whitening Sea, and the Blackening Sea all converged on the Maddening Ocean. The Wonder Sea was the deepest part of the world's waters. History: In the ancient past of Geirkomo, the innumerable Ratt Clans of Old Ratboar, then known simply as Ratboar, gathered together to shake off the shackles of serfdom, and overthrew the little-known Dunemaster Kingdom. It is thought that the ancient ancestors, or perhaps cousins, of the dunids finded this kingdom after discovering the secret of immortality on Planet Ymetros. The dunemasters are thought to have unlocked the secrets of spaceflight from offworld aliens. They were not a numerous species, and their control over the rats was more so political rather than anything else. After winning their freedom, the rats threw the dunemasters into the sea. Legends say that they still lie screaming at the bottom of the Fruitful Trench more than 14,000 years later. The Ratt Clans set up a new system of government wherein local lords would be elected, and they on the behalf of their people would vote for a "high lord" who would serve for a mere decade. The Non-Feudal State of Ratboar grew in size, and magnitude, and soon to came to be the foremost political power on the planet. The Ratt Clans developed a level of technology wherein almost everyone could live comfortably, and subscribed to an ideology that near-deified the revolutionaries who overthrew the dunemasters. For nearly 2,500 years this system served. Then political corruption began to set in, and an interest group known as the Cloud Heads began to take power. They fervently began pushing an agenda of expansion into space, and the colonies which would become Oscorsho, and Rekyspma were finded. This began to bankrupt the non-feudal state, which then began to impose heavy taxes on its people, and then limited how often elections for lords could take place, extended term limits, and limited who could run for office. Power was consolidated into the hands of the Cloud Heads, who wanted nothing more than to live spoiled lives amongst the stars. Then a political revolutionary who would later be called the Emperor of Rat took over. He became high lord, and began calling himself "Emperor" so as to not upset those who would take issue with the title of king. He furthered both the interests of the Cloud Heads, and his people. Soon enough, the colonies were prospering, and the Emperor had conquered all of the Felid System, and the Pleistocene System, even enslaving the Magmatamites, a sapient species of so-called magma cats. When new elections for high lord came around, he had his term extended to twelve years. Then his term became indefinite, as was his life. He seemed to live an unnaturally long life, all the while continuing to age, and growing in both his wisdom, and psychic abilities. He became aware of a nearby threat. The hive mind known as the Heir. They had too recently unified under a single ideology, one which conflicted with his own; the idea spread by the Pollinator that the Heir should be the Heir to all the universe. Fervent in their belief they began to plant their own kind amongst the rats, and began to work their political machinations to ruin the Rattese Interstellar Empire. The Emperor of Rat used his immense psychic ability to protect Planet Geirkomo, as well as Oscorsho, and Rekyspma, even after the scouring. Near the end of his life, he cut a deal with the hive mind. He would lend them his immense psychic powers so long as they not use psychic abilities against the rats, and so long as the rats were the last sapient species to fall (through his contact with the hive mind he learned that thousands upon thousands of sapient species lived in the Axle). The Heir chose to honor this agreement, and nowadays even work in large numbers with the rats as part of Hammer & Sickle, though that is all a charade. A.M. fully intended on keeping the promise, but believing its basis to be foolish, staged the evacuation of Planet Geirkomo, and then turned the Duron Megaweapon on the planet, destroying it. But one dunid, a member of a sapient species of non-human sand cat-like aliens, Zapp Metal Fighter, went on to survive, whilst almost half of all rats were exterminated in one go. The Emperor lived out his final three centuries on a spaceship with just a few servants to tend to his needs. It was written down by one of his servants that in his final moments he used his immense psychic ability to guide a small cruiser within the ship down onto Geirkomo. It is believed by many that this was the ship that saved the Rat Race almost 10,000 years later. For 10,000 years, the Rat Race declined, until the discovery of a spaceship about a century before Huron Space. The so-called warmakers or Gen/Ghen of the Fruitful Trench, a dumping ground in what was once an ancient undersea trench, found a Firestarter class spaceship designed as a middling Rattese imperial scientist's pleasure barge. Suddenly, all three populations of rats were reunited, and with their three different pieces of a technological puzzle, were able to move much of their population offworld, and onto the two pre-existing colonies, or onto three newly built spaceship colonies (which would later become the colonies on Planet Plague, Planet Tigris, and the Harvester Space Station). The Rat Race's puny empire was revived, but then quickly became a vassal state in the Intergalactic Sugar Cartel known as Hammer & Sickle. Their scoured homeword remains with most of their population who are conscripted into sugar plantations. Ecologically, and environmentally, Geirkomo is doomed, but members of the Rat Race after 10,000 years actually have opportunities to go offworld, and are aware of the wider universe around them. Due to the sheer size of Hammer & Sickle, the cartel literally cannot afford to be ruthless. It needs to inspire a certain amount of loyalty, pride, and have some sort of benefit for its workers. Rats actually receive wages, low as they might be, and frequently rise to positions of power in the cartel. Hammer & Sickle has even twice in the last century been led by a member of the Rat Race, first by Jogorais Hakn, and then by his son Waiskar Hakn. Fruitful Trench's shantytown, the foremost of Geirkomo's so-called "Ten Nests" has become a great capital city in its own right, and in its nicest parts even looks quite beautiful. Though members of the rat race are disparaged as members of a fallen, and enslaved empire of drug peddlers, and beastling mutates, they see themselves as a people on the rise after a long age of tribulation, and suffering. Many young rats have hopes of transforming Hammer & Sickle into a full fledged intergalactic government to rival the Universal Union, or even of joining it. The Rat Race hate the Rangaranionese, and the Rangaranionese hate members of the Rat Race. Ecology: Most of the planet's native species have gone extinct in the past 10,000 years, though many insects, as well as great sand slugs, dromonds, desert hounds, carrion cats, and even the spear-wielding dunids have somehow managed to survive. Sand slugs subsist off of sunlight, and so have grown fat in the past ten millennia, and most insects have grown to feed off of them, and when they die the flying desert hounds, and underground-dwelling carrion cats come out in great numbers to feast on their remains. Sand slugs infest the planet, and they have no fear of the Rat Race, bringing with them vermin. The dunids have been brought to the brink of extinction by the sand slugs, which bring with them hordes of hungry feeders which destroy dunid villages, and overwhelm the cat-sized aliens. Only two surviving populations remain on all the planet, mostly thanks to the acquisition of a few frog suits. Dromonds were kept around by the Rat Race as companion animals, and beasts of burden to transport items between nests, and to deliver items around nests. Farming techniques were the only pieces of advanced information that remained in the hands of the rats after the scouring, and so starvation never became an enormous problem for the aliens. Water had become in grievously short supply by the time of Tale of Zul, however, and so the giant camel-like dromonds were bred into two varieties, milk dromonds, which could be used to harvest both water, and milk, and work dromonds, which would continue along with the aforementioned tasks. Dead dromond corpses are seen off in small ceremonies, for the rats have a great respect for them, and their corpses are poisoned to both attract vermin far away from the nests, and to cull their populations.Category:Cosmology Category:Worlds Category:Locations Category:History Category:Hammer & Sickle Category:Huron Space